Swift third in line to make history

As Giants pitcher Billy Swift pursues win No. 18 this afternoon at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, now seems like a good time to lay some historical groundwork for what (knock on a wooden bat) appears to be an impending big-league, 20-win season posted by a native son of Maine.

We get conditioned in the sports ink business to refrain from using the word “first” when it comes to athletic milestones. That’s because experience tells us there’s just too darn much history out there to blithely assume the star of the moment is not, in fact, plowing the same field of stats already plowed by some poor, dead jock years before.

Take Swift’s case.

When and if the South Portland native and former University of Maine ace picks up win No. 20 for San Fran, chances are some Maine media yahoo will call it a “first.”

Nope. Try a third.

Will Anderson of Portland, generally considered Maine’s premier authority on the history of Mainers in professional baseball, has anticipated the rush to saturate the state’s airwaves and newsprint with Swift stories on the occasion of the 20th victory, possibly to be followed by an encore saturation should Swift win the National League Cy Young Award.

“I thought Maine people should know Swift would be doing something remarkable if he wins 20, but not something that hasn’t been done before,” said Anderson, author of the very fine book “Was Baseball Really Invented in Maine?”

Anderson’s research for his book, verified in the Baseball Encyclopedia, turned up two Maine-born big-league pitchers who recorded 20 wins in a season long before Swift was born.

The first was Michael “Kid” Madden of Portland, who went 22-14 his rookie year with the Boston Red Stockings (later the Braves) in 1887. The second 20-game winner from Maine was Irving Melrose Young, a lefthander born in Columbia Falls who went 20-21 with the Boston Beaneaters (later the Braves) as a rookie in 1905.

No, Cherryfield’s Carlton Willey never won 20 for either Milwaukee (sheesh, what is this with Mainers and the Braves?) or the Mets. Neither did Portland-born Bob Stanley in all those years with the Red Sox, in and out of the bullpen.

Only Madden and Young.

“There were some interesting parallels between the two,” said Anderson, referring to the long-deceased Maine 20-game winners. “Both won 20 in their rookie seasons, then never won 20 again. Both played with Boston in the National League. Both were lefthanded.”

The obvious changes in the game during the past century, coupled with the availability of statistics on Madden, Young, and Swift, make for some wonderful argument-starters over whose achievements were tougher to realize. Was it tougher to win 20 then or now?

Madden started 37 games and completed 36 in ’87, hurling 321 innings with a 3.79 ERA. Young started 42 games in ’05, completing 41 and working an arm-numbing 378 innings (both the 41 complete games and 378 innings are still records for a rookie this century).

Swift, by comparison, is on a 33-start, 230-inning pace. Swift has no complete games this season entering today’s game with (who else?) the Braves.

On one hand, it could be argued the reluctance to use relief pitchers in the old era helped each pitcher to win his 20 through sheer number of chances.

Then again, it could be argued Swift’s current 17-5 record has been aided greatly by the relievers who have preserved his victories. Tiring pitchers are more apt to lose in the late innings.

There’s the dead ball vs. live ball argument, which works in the favor of the late great Mainers. But that can be countered with the old glove vs. new glove argument that favors Swift.

No black players vs. the integrated modern game…. Real grass vs. artificial turf…. An eight-team NL then vs. an expanded 14-team NL today… Day games vs. night. It all makes for good conversation.

Swift might enjoy knowing the last Mainer to win 20 had a nickname. They called Irv Young “Cy the Second” or “Young Cy.” That’s a nickname Swift might appreciate even more come awards time at the end of the season.